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Lt. Brown: Arrests legit.
(Updated) A week after protesters decried the arrests of two New Haveners outside a Whalley Avenue liquor store, an in-house police review has cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing.
Police Chief Dean Esserman Tuesday said the officers acted appropriately in arresting and using pepper spray to subdue Jeffrey Agnew Jr. and arresting Tyeisha Hellamns for video-recording the incident from too close a vantage point outside the Beverage Boss at 226 Whalley Ave. on the night of April 30.
Agnew, who’s 28, said he was treated unfairly by store employees who needlessly called the cops and then manhandled by officers even though, he said, he never resisted arrest. He said the cops wrestled him to the ground for no reason, hit him and pepper-sprayed him in the face.
Although Agnew and other citizens did not file formal complaints, Esserman ordered an internal review of the incident on Sunday, May 1, after protesters outside 1 Union Ave. accused the police of brutality. Under the direction of Assistant Police Chief Al Vazquez and Lt. Sam Brown, officers filed supplemental reports and collected video footage and audio recordings and conducted follow-up interviews with witnesses.
State Sen. Gary Winfield — an outspoken critic of police misconduct who attended the May 1 protest rally— met with Chief Esserman at police headquarters this week to review video footage of the incident. Afterwards he seconded Esserman’s assessment.
“I don’t think the police were at fault,” Winfield said.
Upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, who knows Agnew and also attended the protest, also viewed the videos with Esserman and Winfield. “Without forming an opinion over personalities, I did not see where excessive force was used,” Brackeen said afterwards. “It is unfortunate that Jeff Agnew included himself in such a situation as this. From what I saw from viewing the video, the police department engaged in what seemed to be routine business.”
On Wednesday, local activist groups including the ANSWER Coalition and Blacks Lives Matter released a statement offering a different view of the videos.
“No matter what Agnew, Hellamns or anyone did in the store, there is no excuse and no justification for the brutal arrests and beating as recorded on video. We condemn the actions of the police on April 30th. If the police were truly the ‘peace officers’ they claim to be, and truly served and protected the community, then these arrests and beatings would not have happened,” the statement read. It called for arresting the officers and dropping the charges against Agnew and Hellamns.
“Does He Have A Knife?”
Surveillance video captured by the store’s system — and made available to the Independent for review — shows Agnew (in red jacket) repeatedly yelling at store security and other employees after a clerk refused to allow him to use his ID but the debit card of a female friend who lacked ID to purchase a bottle of Hennessey cognac. (See the video at the top of the story, which was taken from the store’s computer.)
“I denied the transaction. I cannot sell to her because she is unable to prove her age,” the clerk, Arpit Dave, told the Independent in an interview. And using her debit card along with Agnew’s ID “is not legal. If you’re not 21, you cannot pay for liquor. You are technically paying for it with her card.”
Beverage Boss owner Hasu Patel, who said he witnessed the encounter, quoted Agnew as saying, “Whether you sell to me or don’t sell to me, I’m going out with a Hennsessy.” And: “Goddamned Indians. You come in here to this country and own the gas stations and the liquor stores.”
The store contacted police as Agnew continued yelling. Agnew can be heard continuing to shout at people in the background of the 911 call as the dispatcher questions the caller.
“Does he have a knife?” the dispatcher asks on the recording.
“I’m not sure about that,” the caller responds. “I just need some help over here.”
As police arrived, Agnew continued to yell and insult store employees in the parking lot.
The video footage (some of which is excerpted above) shows an officer pulling Agnew aside near the road to interview him. After a while more officers come to the scene. Then the officers wrestle him to the ground; while Agnew is on the ground, seemingly motionless, an officer sprays him in the face.
It’s difficult to tell from the footage how the wrestling began, or what happened once Agnew was on the ground. There is no audio to the footage.
The police said Agnew refused to provide ID with the police, grew agitated, lunged at an officer, and fought with them as they tried to arrest him. Six officers — one of whom fell to the ground —ended up wrestling Agnew to the ground.
On the ground, Agnew had his hands under his body. Lt. Brown said said Agnew repeatedly refused orders to show his hands so officers could cuff him. Officers also didn’t know if he had a weapon on him or not, Brown said. (It turned out he did not.) After several requests to show his hands and after a warning, before handcuffs were placed on Agnew, an officer administered the pepper spray, Brown said, to subdue him.
“Those parts of the video aren’t crystal clear. It certainly doesn’t look like the story I was told” at the protest, State Sen. Winfield said.
Agnew could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Police charged him with disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer/resisting arrest. He has yet to enter a plea in the case; his next court date is May 16.
Close-Ups
The second arrest involved 20-year-old Tyeisha Hellamns, who accompanied Agnew and the other woman to the store.
Hellamns pulled out her phone to video-record Agnew’s arrest. Video from the store’s surveillance (above) shows a man near her video-recording as well, and a police officer approaching both of them.
Police said the officer asked them to step back because they were too close to the action.
The man complied. Hellamns (in red cap) is shown circling the scene and at one point moving to within two or three feet of the officers struggling with Agnew. The officer closest to her had his back to him.
Then an officer approached Hellamns again to order her to step back. He leads her away, as other officers join in, and they arrest her.
Hellamns released her own video (above) to the Independent. It shows the officer approaching her and telling her: “Get the fuck out or you get locked up too!”
“What did I do? What did I do?” Hellamns can be heard screaming in the video. “I’m straight. I didn’t do nothing to nobody.”
The police said she lunged at the police. Hellamns denied lunging. The video does not capture a lunge. Officers arrested her on charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with police. Lt. Brown said her refusal to move back put both herself and officers in danger; he noted that an officer was wrestling with a suspect while his back was turned to someone right nearby who could theoretically pose a threat.
The statement released by the three activist groups argued that the arrest was improper: “Hellamns is shown with her hands up, walking backwards away from an officer who chases her and arrests her. Hellamns was not interfering with police by recording them. Connecticut law as adopted in Section 8 of SB 1109 (Session Year 2015) [3] protects the right of people to film police.”
State Sen. Winfield helped pass a state law last year protecting the rights of citizens who record police in action. He said it was clear during the legislative debate that lawmakers believed citizens should not get as close to cops as Hellamns did in the video.
Winfield said he watched the video of Hellamns’ arrest several times.
“I worked very hard to pass that bill. We were clear that we want people to be able to videotape the police. Even those who are proponents of that understand you can’t be up on the police when they’re doing what they’re doing. She was two or three feet away from them. It’s dangerous for the police. It’s dangerous for the person videotaping too,” Winfield argued.
He did question the officers’ tone and use of profanity in dealing with Hellamns.
“I know these situations are tense. But I don’t think you talk to people like that. That’s part of the problem,” Winfield said. “You can’t say to say somebody, ‘Get the fuck out of there.’ There’s emotion. You have to learn to de-escalate. That language escalates situations when you’re cursing and you’re belligerent. It escalates the situation.”
“I don’t think that language is used with everybody,” Winfield added. “I’ve seen a difference when people of color and people who are white get talked to by the police.”
Police spokesman Officer David Hartman defended the officer’s remarks. “The cop’s just trying to get his message through” to someone who’s not listening and who’s defying orders in a tense situation, Hartman said. [Lt. Brown contacted the Independent Thursday to clarify that he disagrees with the officer’s swearing at Hellamns. “Profanity is not needed” in that situation, he said.]
In a phone conversation Tuesday, Hellamns repeated her contention that she was not resisting police or interfering, and that they should not have arrested her. She said she plans to file a formal complaint with the department, possibly next week. She said she plans to plead not guilty at her next court date, scheduled for May 19.
Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting.
And 10 years from now you'll still have a large faction of people still claiming this guy was wrongly arrested...